The battle for the Iron Throne wages on, and the stakes have never been higher. With the Hightowers on one end, and the Targaryens on the other, House of the Dragon is inching ever closer to the end of its confirmed four-season run. This season kicked off with a bang, featuring the legendary Battle of Gullet. And in a universe where no one is safe, you can guarantee the bodies will begin to pile up. We were fortunate enough to get on a roundtable with the cast of the series to discuss what’s coming next!
The Dance of the Dragons wages on, and those loyal to the true queen Rhaenyra Targaryen, will be absolutely thrilled to know that we had a chance to chat with many of the warriors on Team Black. During the House of the Dragons roundtable junket, The Nerds of Color, along with other members of the press were able to sit down with cast members Emma D’Arcy (Rhaenyra), Matt Smith (Daemon Targaryen), Harry Collett (Jace Velaryon), Bethany Antonia (Baela Targaryen), Steve Toussaint (Corlys Velaryon), Clinton Liberty (Addam of Hull), Tom Bennett (Ulf White), and Kieran Bew (Hugh Hammer). Here is everything they had to say to The Nerds of Color!
**MAJOR SPOILER WARNING: Much of the conversation that took place with us and our other press counterparts involves questions about the first two episodes of Season 3. So if you haven’t seen these episodes yet, and do not want to be spoiled, please watch them first then come back to read our interviews.**
Emma D’Arcy and Matt Smith
Reprising their roles as Rhaenyra and Daemon Targaryen, D’Arcy and Smith were faced with some of the more emotionally challenging scenes this season. Given the full dramatic weight of how much the Dance of Dragons has impacted the characters and their families, it was important for us to focus on the emotional effects and how that altered their dramatic approach to their powerful scenes together.
NOC: Hey guys, thank you so much for taking the time to do this. It’s such an honor to chat with you. There are powerful moments like battles and epics action, and then there’s emotional, quieter, powerful moments like when Daemon comes back to Rhaenyra, while she’s mourning, and asks her if she still believes in The Song of Ice and Fire. That was one of the most impactful scenes for me, and I wanted to ask you both, what was it like playing that and finding the emotion in these characters during this very heated time for both of your characters.
D’Arcy: Well, I like that… Rhaenyra sort of becomes paralyzed by grief. There’s a sort of catatonia that she enters, and I think a lot of her close allies and colleagues become a little frightened of the strength of that mourning, and kind of leave her to it. And I really liked, as [showrunner Ryan Condal] and the team sort of described it in the script… that it’s Daemon who refuses to leave her to her grief, and isn’t scared to try to rouse her. Actually… I remember going into that scene and just having a thought, which is that Rhaenyra sort of wants to sleep. And so there’s a really simple objective, which is to rouse [her].
Smith: That’s really what happens in grief. It can sort of put you to sleep. Those slightly domestic moments — often you’re trying to lie down with a sword, which sounds easy, but believe me, it’s not. Do you know what I mean? Because there’s really sort of stupid practical things that are at play, but I think those moments… the domestic ones are often where you learn the most about these people, and that makes it really easy, because her state of being is so clear. And the energy from that is so strong. What she’s kind of delivering, in performance terms, that you just have to react to really.
Steve Toussaint
Toussaint commands the most exciting season premiere for the series since the first season. The Battle of Gullet is an intense and famed conflict from the books, with Toussaint’s Corlys and Salim’s Alyn being right smack in the middle of it. The Sea Snake, as they call Toussaint’s character, earned his name being one of the greatest naval fighters and navigators in all of Westeros. So naturally, we had to ask him about the challenges of portraying one of the finest scenes from the first episode.
NOC: So, in this universe we’ve seen epic battles. And in a show like this some of the most incredible moments are with dragons and big flashy moments. But honestly one of the most intense scenes that we see in the Battle of Gullet is The Sea Snake really living up to his name and navigating these waters that are just incredibly coarse and crazy. It’s so tense and it’s so epic and incredible. Even if it doesn’t look like it’s like the flashiest scene when you’re filming that, did it feel epic in the moment that he’s actually doing this incredible navigational feat, and living up to that that naval command role that has been alluded to and teased for these various seasons?
Toussaint: Yes, I think it does. Initially, I was mentioning before that… I don’t know much about nautical history. So when I saw the ship, I was expecting a wheel… So when I read the script, I imagined going like that [makes a steering wheel motion], because that’s that’s bigger. And then when Loni Peristere [the season premiere’s director] and the gentleman, who was the expert, [stated it was different]… I was like, “oh right, okay, it’s fine, I was fine. I would like to [use a] wheel, but no, I can do this.” But once you start doing it, and the minute that I said to… Hamza something like, “No, lad. Let me” It did [feel epic]… I remember Loni saying this is when we see what The Sea Snake can do. He has memorized this journey. He knows where all the rocks are. And this is where we see what he can do… It does feel massive. I mean, look, you don’t play epic, you play the moment. But there was half a mind to think, this will be impressive for people watching it.
Clinton Liberty, Tom Bennett, and Kieran Bew
Three of the biggest surprise additions to the cast during Season 2 were the inclusions of Liberty, Bennett, and Bew. When Rhaenyra called for dragonriders, she searched for dragonseeds (illegitimate children of House Targaryen and Valyrian descent). The three who were able to successfully bond with dragons were Addam of Hull, Hugh Hammer, and Ulf White. As the unexpected trio of outcasts joining the Team Black fight, it was important for these three to cultivate a fun comedic chemistry. This is showcased in the third season premiere with a hilarious conversation about the perks and deficits that come with knighthood, with Ulf arguing he’d rather have a castle and lordship than a horse and nobility. It got us wondering what the real life thespians would personally choose themselves.
NOC: For all three of you, as yourselves and not your characters, what’s more important to you, the horse and the lordship or the castle?
Bew: I’d like to think that the horse and the lordship is worth enough that you could get a castle, but I’m not sure it is, so I’ll take the castle, please.
Bennett: Maybe you can cash it in? Alright, I’ll take the castle.
Bew: What is lordship worth in this world? Can you monetize it?
Bennett: Who knows what a lord is worth? You can live in a castle, you can’t live in a horse.
Liberty: I would say I would say a horse and a lordship, because you can get stuff. You can get riches and stuff. But you can’t, like in Adam’s case, you can’t really get the Valarian name and the power that comes with it.
Bennett: No but for you, is it actually worth not only that?
Bew: Yes as Clinton.
Liberty: Oh as me? Horse and the Lordship, absolutely.
Bew: I think I’d like a castle. My kids would want that.
Bennett: We’re parents. [Clinton’s] not. We’ll take the mortgage free accommodation. Thank you! Change my name, your name. You have your horse.
Liberty: But that’s the thing. You can add Lord, but you then have to explain to people when you’re bestowed upon lordship. Everyone respects your name, bro.
Bennett: Lord, ain’t gonna feed my… but wait. How big is…
Bew: Yeah how big is the castle?
Bennett: We haven’t gone into details.
Bew: Is it like Harrenhal, and it’s all fallen to bits?
Bennett: And is it a lease?
NOC: You won’t know until you get it!
Harry Collett and Bethany Antonia
Collett and Antonia play the future of the Targaryen House. As Jace and Baela they hold the key to carrying on Rhaenyra’s legacy. It means they both have to fight to uphold the honor of Jace’s mother. And with The Battle of Gullet being a defining battle in the Dance of Dragons, the two have to play a critical role in the outcome of the conflict. With this being the third season of a four-season series, we asked them what it was like preparing for the inevitable conclusions of their character arcs.
NOC: You both have been with these characters for several years now, from your very first time playing them to the current season. Can you talk about the subtle differences that you’ve had to infuse into your characters as you’ve seen them grow from the beginning of the series to now as we near the endgame of House of the Dragon?
Collett: I think we’ve been on this show for five years and I feel like we’ve grown as actors a lot more, which sort of sparks new ideas every time. We’re quite lucky that we’ve got the security that we’re going to come back next year. And if we think of an idea in our time off, we can then incorporate it on the next season, which I think is really nice. And we set a base when we first got the roles of our characters, but then it’s just experimenting and seeing what works and what doesn’t work… but it’s also good because our characters grow that way and our characters grow with us.
Antonia: What I will say is, one thing I’ve really noticed is that… not that much time has passed in the story’s timeline. Actually, as we age and as we get older, trying to maintain that youth that the characters have, because they are so much younger than us now. And trying to remember that only a few days has passed in between Season 2 and 3. But for us it’s been two years. That’s been something that I’ve had to constantly remind myself. She’s not a big woman… So actually trying to not take our growth as adults into those characters has been quite difficult to remember. They’re much younger than we are, and five years is a long time, and we’re still playing these teenagers who are very, very young. As we become much older adults. And so it’s just a constant [reminder] going forward into the next season, that they are still children. And so as much as we’ve grown and our way of thinking has changed, we need to keep that youthful mindset.
NOC: Can you talk about like the stuntwork and the process of getting into The Battle of Gullet — a battle that’s been bigger than anything either of you guys have kind of experienced on the show before?
Antonia: Right from the get, before we’d even gone into shooting, we were in pre-production and we had this big meeting with Loni [our director]. We went in, and we watched him. He had the whole sequence from beginning to end, pre-animated, pre-ready, for us to see each character’s POV. And there was a different version for each character. So that we could see what we had to work with. And that was amazing. I’ve never experienced anything like that before, and he was really specific in what he wanted us to feel and what we were seeing. Which I think made such a difference when it came to us doing all of our stuff alone. So we really got a sense of like what we were looking at and what we were going into.
Collett: He’s just a ball of energy. He loves what he does, and you can tell. And he doesn’t have to have meetings with us before, but he chooses to. And it’s very unique, as a director, to have that sort of involvement and make sure that we feel comfortable in what we’re doing. He’s just so excited about it, and he genuinely loves the show with all of his heart. And I even remember he turned to us and was like, “Yeah, your dragon’s gonna be doing tricks, barrel rolls.” And I was like, “this is gonna be insane. How are they gonna do that?”
Antonia: It’s amazing. Yeah, and he had, they had a piece of technology that was so new to us. When we were on the buck, they had this iPad, so we could hold it up. And it would show us already in the edit, like in real time. So it’s got in-the-moment effects, which is insane. I was like, “this is crazy.” It felt like we were in a sci-fi movie about like dragons going wrong. It was wild, and it was just a way of showing us, because we hadn’t got anyone else there. A way of showing us what we were sort of faced with, and that was really cool.
As the Dance of Dragons nears its conclusion, every participant of Team Black is rallying up for the beginning of the end. Epic battles, tragic deaths, and daring dragon flights are just the start of it. With an ensemble cast of multi-talented performers playing iconic characters, the war between the Targaryens and Hightowers could not be more compelling.
See how it all plays out on Season 3 of House of the Dragon. The first two episodes are now available to stream on HBO Max!
